Feature Stories

If you remember, we had gone to Italy last month to drive a couple of cars, including the Fiat 500L and the Alfa Romeo 4C. We also drove the latest version of the Fiat 500 Cult, a new trim level with a new engine and a manual gearbox, before it was even revealed at the Geneva Motor Show last week. We’d never driven a 500 before that, but damn is it good with the Euro-spec hardware.

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Don’t get too excited. If you were pining for a hybrid version of the Toyota Camry, you’re still not going to be able to buy one. The brand’s UAE dealer has just sold less than 50 of these hybrid sedans for service as Dubai taxis, and being a passenger in one of these rarities will be as close as you can come to experiencing it. But we got a chance to take the 2014 Toyota Camry Hybrid for a spin.

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Overseas media trips usually follow a strict regimen — you eat, sleep and drive whatever’s on “The Plan” and you do not deviate from it. So while the original plan was to drive a couple of Fiats, a Wheels scribe from our little Middle Eastern group requested to drive an Alfa Romeo 4C in the free time before we flew back to Dubai. And our Italian handlers obliged. What came next was a drive that shattered expectations.

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The awkwardly-styled BMW 1-Series has always been an acquired taste ever since it launched in 2004. But I’ve always been a fan of the top-spec 1-Series which have combined arguably BMW’s best inline-6 engines with an entertaining chassis and probably most closely evoke the spirit of past BMWs than most of the other current models. Having owned (and loved) a 2007 130i M Sport back in London, as soon as I saw the M135i I knew I had to have it as it promised to be even better than the old car.

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This was one overseas media event that kept throwing us surprises by the bucketful. I was invited for a trip to Milan by Fiat to drive something or the other. What we got was a romp in a manual 500 with a new turbo engine as well as a brief run in an insane Alfa Romeo 4C, but more on all that later. The car in focus during the event was the Fiat 500L Trekking, a recently-released crossover that’s tentatively headed to UAE shores by the end of summer this year.

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What started off as a last-minute call to a few of our fans to hang with us while we took photos of an Audi A5 Sportback ended up turning into a mini-meet of sorts last Saturday, as several of our regulars from previous meets showed up. As the sun set, a few people still kept coming in, and eventually reader Saifur Rahman from Mama Tani restaurant brought with him loads of complimentary Emirati cuisine and tea, for an impromptu food party around the boot of our Jaguar. We even handed out USB flash sticks to everyone who showed up.

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With all the hype over three-row crossover SUVs such as the Ford Explorer, the Honda Pilot and the Nissan Pathfinder, we’re wondering why more people don’t ask us about the Dodge Durango when discussing their shopping lists. They should, because we could hardly find a fault with the facelifted 2014 version that we just drove across the country in.

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When it comes to cars, how do you turn more heads than a Bugatti Veyron with only a Dhs 25,000 budget? The Nagawa XFR is the easy answer, and yes, that’s what it costs.

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The stares and the curiosity were unavoidable. I saw jaws drop and grown up men behave like children. Suddenly, everyone wanted to prove that their motorcycling days started astride a motorcycle like this. All this drama took place on one of the weekend rides earlier this month when I turned up on this, the all-new Royal Enfield Continental GT.

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